First Day of School – 2/10/11

I woke up pretty excited for classes to start.  It goes without saying my entire house was up absurdly early because my host-nephew Pablo had his first day of Kindergarten and now one in a km radius was left without knowing.  But today his chant was “Voy para el Kinder hoy!”  His mom was exhausted because as the town seamstress she has had to make/fix hundreds of uniforms in the last few weeks but her eyes still gleamed with excitement for him.  We walked up to the school along with several other families with every excited for the school year to start.

I felt awkward when I got there.  I am not an actual teacher but more of an assistant.  Plus I didn’t know what the acto civico was.  So I went to visit my friend the cafeteria lady Marylu to ask her was to do.  The acto civico turned out to be the singing of the national anthem, prayer, introduction of the teachers/staff and announcement period with all of the students and staff.  It was basically a ten minute assembly with all of us crowded and standing in one of the large classrooms. 

After each teacher took their group I was again confused as to what to do.  They asked me to take attendance and tell the students about myself and what I’m doing here, so I did.  Then, after taking the initiative and chatting with the students in English for a while I peeked into another classroom who was having the students copy down their schedules which they hadn’t given me.  So I found the least organized form of having them copy it down and we were finally switched around and got the oldest group and chatted with them in English for a while then turned it into a Spanish convo because they were not mentally prepared to actually think on the first day. 

When the students left early I was again lost.  They waited until all the students finished lunch and left to eat so I took advantage of the wireless and called some of my family and friends back home who I hadn’t spoken to in weeks.  Having lunch with them was very refreshing.  But today there are no English teachers so I’m kind of confused what to do.  I guess I’m just going to walk up in a little and see if they need help although I’m going to maintain Friday as my day off and work in the schools Monday through Thursday.  Friday will be my day to work on other projects.  I’m excited to have a more normal schedule. 

I went on a walk just after school yesterday to the alto.  I took only Bash and my umbrella because it was going to pour.  When we got to the area with no houses I let her loose and she went crazy. She was sprinting forward and then back to me constantly keeping just ahead of me.  She was soaked but had a smile the entire 90 minutes we were walking.  We got up to the top of the hill and the rain slowed.  I could see each way with the neblina (clouds) rolling in.  Every time I turned in a different direction I had my breath taken away and blew a kiss at the world, I basically mad out with it on this regular walk of mine.  It was just so refreshing going for a walk in the rain constantly slipping through the mud and it was still warm outside.  It’s on these walks that I remember one reason why I’m in Costa Rica doing what I’m doing.  Because I get to go walking everyday and see sights that millions of people travel to see every year in my own back yard. 

Stoked,

Jenny